Light shines, but weakly

Barack Obama, among other things, is the president who will throw open the sash and let in the light. He hailed while campaigning for the job he now holds the coming of a “new era of open government.” Demonstrating the ostensible seriousness of his intent, Obama in his first day at work signed an executive memorandum stating, “all agencies should adopt a presumption of disclosure.” Well, all agencies have adopted presumptions. Disclosure remains an orphan.

Should Obama be moved to disclose, he might show us where the money from his almost $800 billion stimulus package is flowing. Or what of the bailout cash for banks and American International Group?

Jimmy Hoffa’s body has been easier to trace than the trillions of dollars invested in saving the economy, so far to the effect of hundreds of thousands of lost jobs, credit frozen enough to form an Arctic ice floe and a dazed Dow staggering as though it just walked into a heavyweight boxer’s fist.

As Sunshine Week, the annual celebration of open government, advances to its fourth day, an abiding dichotomy persists between the concept and its application. This has rarely been more evident than it was in the reign of George W. Bush, who took to operating in shadows when the Twin Towers fell and remained there long after the dust cleared.

Citing the Bush administration’s wanton encroachment on Americans’ civil liberties, Obama pledged he would tear away secrecy’s veil once in office, a move so far evinced most substantively in the dismantling of many of his predecessor’s terrorism policies. Meanwhile, the mystery thickens over where precisely American taxpayer money is going at a time when the stuff is being spent as fast as the Treasury can print it.

The latest furor is over the $165 million in bonuses paid to executives at AIG, the recipient of more than $170 billion in bailout money. This so far has drawn mandatory sneers from Obama – “how do they justify this outrage?” – and Democrats and Republicans alike in both legislative houses. But isn’t up to Obama and lawmakers to justify the outrage? Shouldn’t they have known how taxpayers’ money would be used?

If the constantly unfolding debacles over bailouts and the stimulus are indicators, the real obstacles to open government in the present day might be simple recklessness as much as aversion to sunlight. The signal first sounded under Bush and then rung repeatedly under Obama, calling for the spending of record amounts of taxpayer money, initiated among lawmakers a stampede. The product of this, among other things, is approval within a few short days of a stimulus package covering more than 1,000 pages, the details of which most legislators are yet unaware.

Open government’s value is in preserving democracy. Toward that end, providing a clear, easily accessible look at how taxpayer money might be spent before bills are passed and signatures are affixed would give the people leave to signal either their disapproval in the public forum or their assent by silence. Instead, they are left to wonder after the fact where the money went.

Obama could start rectifying this by providing searchable databases listing the sundry bailouts and stimulus initiatives and showing in precise figures and plain language where taxpayer dollars are going. He could also pledge to do the same for all future spending programs, and to provide sufficient time for a thorough vetting before the money leaves government hands.

Spending at breakneck speed inside the walls of secrecy that haste provides, elected officials have shown no evident restraint in the use of others’ money. We suspect their habits might alter were they practiced in the light.